t3o GREAT AMERICANS

by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi-
ness. That to secure these rights, governments are insti-
tuted among men, deriving their just powers from the
consent of the governed. That whenever any form of
government becomes destructive of these ends it is the
right of the people to alter or to abolish it . . ."

So Jefferson wrote, and on July 4, ever since held as
a national holiday throughout the United States, the
Declaration was accepted by Congress, and immediately
riders were despatched in all directions bearing the
great news. As the tidings spread, from every steeple
and tower in town and village bells began to ring forth,
and soon, from one end of the country to the other, the
joyous peals were proclaiming that a new nation had
been born.

Thomas Jefferson had performed the most famous act
of his life, though many years of useful service to his
country lay before him. He took little share in the war
which followed. In 1776 he returned to the Virginian
legislature, and for two years he worked hard revising
the laws of that State. In this work his deep knowledge
of the laws of other countries helped him immensely,
and within two years he and those who assisted him
drew up recommendations for one hundred and twenty-
six new laws, and practically gave Virginia a fresh legal
system.

In 1779, when he was only thirty-six, Jefferson be-
came Governor of Virginia, resigning that post in 1781
and again becoming a member of Congress. After the
peace he served his country in various ways. It was he,